Building Capacity for UN Peacekeeping

In an effort to increase the capacity of UN peacekeeping operations, two ministerial have been held where Member States pledged necessary capabilities to be used in UN peacekeeping operations. The third annual defense ministerial summit will be held in Vancouver in late 2017.

The 2017 Defence Ministerial (“The Vancouver Summit”)

The 2017 UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial will be hosted by Canada, in Vancouver, November 14-15.

The Ministerial was a follow-up to the Defense Ministerial in London, UK in September 2017, that had 70 countries attend. The ministerial generated 30 new pledges for peacekeeping contributions.

This meeting brought together 500 delegates from 70 Member States and was intended to generate and renew support for peacekeeping operations around the world. The themes of discussion for the two-day event was be 1) smart pledges 2) innovative training and capacity building 3) protection of those at risk 4) early warning and rapid deployment. The cross cutting themes are 1) gender 2) policing and 3) Francophone contributions.

The 2016 Defence Ministerial (“The UK Summit”)

The UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial was hosted by the UK Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, in London from 7-8 September. It was co-hosted with Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Rwanda, the United States, and Uruguay.

The Ministerial is a follow-up to the World Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping held in September 2015 that saw 54 countries make pledges towards peacekeeping. Since then, 20 new countries have joined and pledged additional contributions.

This meeting brought together Defence Ministers from more than 60 Member States and was intended to build upon international contributions and support at a time when UN Peacekeeping continues to face critical challenges in Mali and South Sudan, amongst others. Other than accelerating global efforts, the meeting discussed core peacekeeping issues such as women in peacekeeping, reform, accountability, training, and deployment.

You can watch a video of the event below:

The 2015 Leaders Summit (“The Obama Summit”)

On the afternoon of September 28th, 2015, the UN hosted the Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama were co-chairing the event, which was also being co-hosted by Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uruguay and the United States.

The Summit’s objective was to generate significant, concrete and new commitments that will support peacekeeping operations while closing persistent military and police gaps and generating rapid deployment units and specialized units that will be deployed in current or new operations.

The event took place from approximately 3pm-7pm New York time. U.S. President Barack Obama opened the event with a speech stressing the relevance of UN Peacekeeping Operations in the world today, as well as launching a new strategy for the United States on peacekeeping – the first such declaration to come out in two decades.